Last month in June I had the opportunity to travel to the south of France, to attend the Cannes Lions “International Festival of Creativity”. I found Cannes Lions to be more of a Festival of corporate boozing and schmoozing (consisting of mostly Americans in the advertising and tech biz). After my week in Cannes, I was thoroughly exhausted from nonstop work, the summer heat and humidity, and a few too many Aperol Spritzes. I was beyond ready to GTFO of Cannes, chill, and immerse myself in real European culture. Being the travel opportunist and alpine enthusiast that I am, I took advantage of the work-paid flight as an opportunity to linger around Europe, and find my way back to the Alps.

I LOVE the mountains, and I absolutely adore the Alps. In 2018 I visited the Swiss Alps, and in 2019 I road-tripped and hiked around the Italian Dolomites. The Alps span Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Italy and France— and I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to visit the Mont Blanc region that borders France, Italy, and Switzerland. I picked Chamonix, France as destination based solely on the fact that I had heard of it, but didn’t know much about it. I asked for advice from friends and followers on Instagram, and from there worked out an itinerary that would get me by rental car from Nice, France, through Italy’s wine country, then onwards into the Mont Blanc region of Italy/France. I would spend a few days in the cute mountain village of Courmayeur, Italy, before driving the short (but claustrophobic) 10 km distance through the Mont Blanc tunnel that connects to Chamonix, France. After a few more days in Chamonix, I had to drive 5-6 hours to Paris to return my rental car and fly home.

Photos shot on film (including half frame 35mm), drone, Sony A7ii, and iphone 12 pro max.

NICE

My post-work trip started in Nice. One of my good buds, Xenia, recently moved to Paris from Stockholm, and she had taken a train down from Paris the weekend to hang out with me! Xenia booked an Airbnb in the center of Nice; from where we explored the city, and day tripped by rental car to the village of Eze, Mala Beach, and a quick stop off in Monaco to visit the Musée océanographique de Monaco (and make a surprise visit into a new country— whoo!).

ALBA (Barolo Wine Country), ITALY

After a short, but sweet weekend together… Xenia had to catch a train back to Paris, while I made my way onwards to Italy. I had a long list of places that I wanted to go, things to see, and food to eat in Italy… but after Cannes and Nice, I was far too exhausted to do very much of it.

I had received several tips to visit the Barolo, Piedmont region of Italy, which is renowned for it’s wine and cuisine, but I had to choose where in the region to eat and stay for just one night. I somewhat randomly chose the town of Alba; where I had dinner at the restaurant “Osteria dei Sognatori”, and then stayed the night at a lovely farmhouse style Bnb called Cascina Baresane, which I had found the same day on Booking.com.

I will have to go back to Piedmont and do a proper wine and dine visit. I love Italian food, and have eaten some of my most memorable and delicious travel meals in Italy. But this time I wasn’t feeling very well, and (despite testing negative for covid in Nice) I started to suspect that I might have picked up le covid in France. Among the first clues that I had it was my loss of appetite... a real red flag for Omicron, and a major bummer to experience while in Italy!!

COURMAYEUR (AOSTA VALLEY), ITALY

Arriving to the mountains of Italy’s Aosta Valley was a true breath of fresh air. I was out of the intense heat of the coast and lowlands, and I was in one of my favorite places on earth… the Alps. After checking into my hotel, I made a trip to the pharmacy to pick up a covid test, which confirmed my worst suspicion… I did indeed have covid. I didn’t feel terrible, but I was filled with stress and anxiety about how to navigate having a contagious illness while traveling (the very last thing I wanted to do was infect anybody). Fortunately, I was well stocked with masks (including N95s) and copious amounts of hand sanitizer and wipes from Cannes Lions free swag. From that point on, I masked up and sanitized obsessively, and kept to myself as best I could. Aside from getting groceries, food, and items from the pharmacy (which I did wearing a heavy duty medical grade mask), it was easy to avoid people by going out on drives on my own in my rental car. Courmayeur and the surrounding valleys are not very populated places, so it’s kind of ideal for those who are anti-social, or social distancing.

RAINY DAY DRIVE TO VAL FERRET & Valgrisenche

It’s always so interesting to finally arrive to a region after spending so many hours at home researching that very place. I had carefully compared and studied the various towns and hotel options in the Aosta Valley, wanting to make the best possible choice for where to stay. The Aosta Valley is a larger valley that the main highway runs through, but there are several smaller valleys that shoot off from it, each with small towns (more like villages) sprinkled along the winding roads as they make their way higher into the mountains. A couple of the towns I considered staying at were Cogne, and another was Valgrisenche (or was it Valsavarenche??). It was a very stormy day (and I was absolutely loving it), so I suited up in cozy clothes and packed my rain gear, and took off in the Fiat for a rainy day drive. I hate driving when I’m home in LA, but I love driving when I’m abroad! And the steeper, more sketchy and windy a road is, the more fun I have driving. Extra bonus fun is when the car is stick shift AND right hand drive (but they’re just regular left hand drive in France and Italy).

The drive to Valgrisenche was very wet and moody, and the town itself was very small and felt like a ghost town. It was nice to get out and see more of the region, but I was glad that I had chosen to stay in Courmayeur (Entrèves to be exact) this time. It was nice to have access to a bit more variety to see (including the view of Mont Blanc!), as well as conveniences like the pharmacy and grocery store in town.

HIKING VAL FERRET

After a couple of days of nursing my very mild (but majorly annoying) illness, the sun came out, and I was feeling pretty solid. After almost two weeks in Europe, but not being in nature or doing any real physical activity, I was beyond anxious to get out on the trails. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel doing any strenuous activity (or any activity at all), but decided to just go for it and attempt to do a moderate hike. The trail I chose is called Sentiero Balcone della Val Ferret. The trail climbs up the side of the valley Val Ferret, through rolling fields of grass and wildflowers and the occasional grove of pine trees, and offers epic views across to Mont Blanc and the glaciated Mont Blanc massif (mountain range). The trail comes to a Refuge Walter-Bonatti (a mountain hut with beds, food, drinks, and many, many cows), before dropping back down to the valley floor. The trail was Alpine perfection… those classic Sound of Music green (haven’t seen it since I was in elementary school, but we all know the vibe). Whatever lingering covid I still might have had was truly mild, and in no way prevented me from hiking the 6.5 mile trail, including an elevation gain of 1,798 ft. (sadly it did prevent me from getting to visit and eat at the refuge this time… since I was distancing, I packed my own lunch).

Continued in my Chamonix post…